July 2010

The Sports industry didn’t invent social media, but it definitely found its soul mate. From individual athletes using twitter to communicate directly with their followers, to teams finding new ways to engage with their fans, to even the World Cup bringing the world closer together throughout the one month tournament. In the coming months, this […]

Anyone who is in sales or has ever sold for a living knows the pressure of getting deals done. Most often the focus is on moving inventory, cold calling and quantity versus quality. What have you done lately and you’re only as good as your last sale are common themes. It’s SELL, SELL, SELL! There […]

This past month, ESPN implored Americans to “catch the World Cup on television, online, and on your phone,” and the country responded. More than 120 million Americans tuned in to witness the excitement from South Africa as World Cup fever swept across the country. Both ESPN and the Spanish-language network Univision shattered previous viewership records. […]

What do senior management executives at CPG companies and retailers think about corporate social media strategies? Top executives were probed on this topic, along with many others, as part of the research for a just-released 2010 Grocery Manufacturers Association/PricewaterhouseCoopers financial performance report — and the insights gleaned are more specific and practical than marketers might […]

Many marketers lack the capabilities or budgets to track performance of events and sponsorship activities adequately, according to a new survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and sponsorship research/consultancy/training services supplier IEG.

ESPN got into a spat with CBS Sports last month when it said the U.S-Algeria World Cup match drew the largest audience ever for a sports event online with 1.1 million viewers. The sports network made no such bold claims this week about overall online ratings for the World Cup, but it did roll out […]

As cell phones achieve something approaching ubiquity, growing numbers of U.S. adults are using mobile devices to access the Internet, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Specifically, Pew found that 38% of U.S. adults who own a mobile device use it to access the Internet — up from 25% in April 2009.

“The revenue is driven by an increase in digital sales and cause-related platforms,” said Chris Granger, senior vice president of team marketing and business operations for the NBA. Granger would not disclose the specific amount of total team sponsorship revenue. Digital sponsorship sales leaguewide have increased more than 30 percent in the last two years.

The online content space is evolving quickly as new models for creating, distributing, and monetizing content are being iterated in real-time. Yahoo’s acquisition of Associated Content, Demand Media’s quick rise and impending IPO, and AOL’s doubling down on content with Seed.com have all been at the center of a raging debate about content’s future.